


Liberty

by meretriciousanddelicious



Category: Batman (Movies - Nolan)
Genre: Emotional Hurt, F/M, becoming Two-Face, trying so hard to be good
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-07
Updated: 2017-02-07
Packaged: 2018-09-22 18:33:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9620090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meretriciousanddelicious/pseuds/meretriciousanddelicious
Summary: Lancelot called himself the Chevalier Mal Fet -- "the Ill-Made Knight".  Most assumed this was because he was physically ugly.  For Lancelot it was because he felt he was ugly on the inside.In the moment of becoming Two-Face, Harvey Dent believes that his outsides now match his insides.





	

_All I ever wanted to be was a good person._

He woke in agony when the morphine wore off.

_All I ever wanted to be was a good person._

His right eyelid fluttered as he choked on the new pain, clawing at the cold white sheets.  His left eye was open, wide open, for what felt like the very first time in his life.

Somehow he knew it would never close again.

_Lancelot._

As a young boy he’d read T.H. White’s “The Once and Future King”, and Harvey remembered identifying so heavily with his depiction of Lancelot.

Lancelot knew he wasn’t a good person, because he had to try to be good.  Good people don’t have to try; they do good things because they inherently wish to.

Lancelot knew he was bad, and tried so hard to be good.

So did Harvey.

_Grew up here, in these streets.  Wanted to be better than that.  Wanted to give instead of take – always give._

_Always be good._

In his wounded state he cast his gaze around, searching for some source of comfort.  He found it in the gleam of the silver coin on the tray beside him.

_Rachel.  My Rachel._

His Guinevere.  His shining one. 

He moved his arm in the restraints, playing for as much slack as they would give until he could walk his hand across the edge of the tray and pull the coin into his grip.

His Lady Liberty, her head crowned with rays of light, gave him her sterling profile.

And for a terrible endless instant he had hope… until he turned to see her other side.

Good people give, you see.  Good people give it all and never take for themselves.

Harvey had only ever let himself truly desire one thing.

_Rachel…_

If he could only have her, he could give the rest to the world.  He could give it _all_ away, even his own life – if only she would be in it.  If only he could love her and feel her love him, until the day his life was taken.

Now he knew the truth.  Now he had learned what his life to this point had tried to teach him.

No one can be all good – because good things are destroyed in this world.  Eaten up, swallowed down, torn apart, blown away.  Just like Rachel.

Give and give and give and it won’t ever be enough.  Gotham City – or even the whole goddamned universe! – will take and take and take from the good until there’s nothing left.

Maybe now Harvey was free to finally be what _he’d_ always been.

Now Harvey could be half.

 _Half_ , said the charred, scarred side of the coin.

 _Half_ , agreed the charred, scarred side of his face.

His gun was in its holster with his ruined suit, sitting five feet away on a chair.

The two halves of Harvey Dent lay back on the hospital bed and listened to the noises in the hall.  Conversation from the next room: a new mother and a new grandmother, discussing baby names.

Flip – the grandmother lives.

Flip – the mother dies.

Down at the nurse’s station the janitor flirted with a candy-striper.

Flip – the volunteer lives.

Flip – the worker dies.

Overhead on the speaker an administrator paged a surgeon.

Flip – the doctor lives.

Flip – the admin dies.

A gun in one hand and a coin in the other.

Flip – Two-Face lives.

Flip – Harvey Dent dies.

_Just like how it should have been last night…_

The last of his emotions burning away, Two-Face gazed calmly on the ravaged face of Liberty and saw her smile.


End file.
